Yes, you mock, you non-Barneyites! But how many of you have read the great one’s gift to the world, the book that explains all? Take, for example, this passage, from Chapter 421, “Barney Rubble, Barney Fife, Andy Barney,” at page 13,274:

“Many years ago when I was just a young coach I ran 1v1 drills for a group of U10 boys. Of course, I instructed the boys to perform 2 Maradonnas, a Cruyff turn, an around the world juggle, and six Vs before shooting. Alas, none of the boys actually scored during the drill, but the actuation of their essential creativity was a sight that brought me to tears.

Until, until – it pains me even now to think of it – a boy, let’s just call him ‘Little Johnny,’ came to his turn. He took the ball, ran around his opponent without executing a single move, shot and scored.

The outrage at what I had just seen temporarily paralyzed me. As the bile rose in my throat, I raised my arm and pointed at Little Johnny, bringing a hush to the 600 boys at practice that day. Finally, my voice returned, and I uttered a single word, not loudly, but it cut across the stillness of the practice field.

‘Cheater!’

Well, we did what we had do then. The boys formed two lines of 300 boys each to make a tunnel, with me at one end. Little Johnny walked through the tunnel as each boy stared at him stony faced, making his disapproval known. When finally Little Johnny reached me, I ripped each and every Legends crest off of his uniform, then gave him to his parents, never to return.

The rest was inevitable, I suppose. Little Johnny, the cheater boy, the shortcut boy, fell into a life of dissolution and crime. I lost track him of him until one day, when Little Johnny was age 19, he called me from Death Row. ‘Coach Barney,’ he cried, ‘if I had only listened to you!’

You know as I read this, besides being struck by the feeling of becoming smarter and dumber at the same time, I am realizing how much creativity Andy can actually inspire. Just look at us!!! He has a twisted and perverse effect on everything we are doing. He is actually inspiring the very creativity he talks about all the time.

Very crafty Andy, but I am on to you. Be careful Ian, it is a very seductive spell. I am starting to think him smarter and more crafty than the lot of us put together.

You know as I read this, besides being struck by the feeling of becoming smarter and dumber at the same time, I am realizing how much creativity Andy can actually inspire. Just look at us!!! He has a twisted and perverse effect on everything we are doing. He is actually inspiring the very creativity he talks about all the time.

Very crafty Andy, but I am on to you. Be careful Ian, it is a very seductive spell. I am starting to think him smarter and more crafty than the lot of us put together.

Agreed wholeheartedly!

The old saying applies here:"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King..."

Problem for him is: "the one-eyed man is King.... UNTIL the 2-eyed man appears..."

What's with the multiple paragraphs? That's not how the Chosen One has taught us to write. By the way, you left out Andy Rooney.

Originally Posted By: Ian_Fleming

Yes, you mock, you non-Barneyites! But how many of you have read the great ones gift to the world, the book that explains all? Take, for example, this passage, from Chapter 421, Barney Rubble, Barney Fife, Andy Barney, at page 13,274:

Over the years the unique Legends philosophy has been credited by many extremely intelligent and worldly wise parents with developing an unusual degree of very positive life character attributes in their offspring. Many of these character attributes are very different from the traditional benefits of team sports, e.g. risk orientation, willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty, balance of science and art, logic and imagination, emotional intelligence. Many are already commonly accepted e.g. teamwork, work ethic, rule adherence, organization of time, commitment, recovery from negative events, conflict resolution etc etc. It seems as though the longer a player spent with the club the more the parent and child felt that they gained a very unique and positive perspective on life as a result of their "Legends" experience. As a bonus the majority parental hypothesis is that even accepted positive characteristics were developed to a significantly greater degree than normal by the challenging and creative "Training Soccer Legends" approach.